


I'll Learn Beside You, Alright?

by camellialand



Category: Original Work
Genre: College, Eventual Romance, F/F, Nerdiness, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Romance, They'll figure it out, Useless Lesbians, i don't know what to tag, socially awkward girls, there might be some family drama later on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 23:21:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16649797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/camellialand/pseuds/camellialand
Summary: It all starts with a friendly competition to see who can get the highest grade for the upcoming exam.  Everything that followed was just good luck on their part. A love story between two socially awkward nerds who are socially awkward in very different ways.





	1. The Stolen 100

**Author's Note:**

> I'm just now finding out I can post original stories on here. I first posted this story on Quotev. Anyways this story mostly serves as a sort of foot in the water. It's been a while since I've written fiction, but I really wanted to start up again. I started getting more serious about this work by the third chapter, I think. Anyways, I hope you enjoy :) The rest of the notes will be the same ones from Quotev so if they feel slightly out of place that's why. It also turns out formatting is more difficult here than I expected. For now, it'll look weird. I'll try and fix it later.

Professor Genz was a genius. When he announced Marilyn as the highest scoring student on the test out of the class, and then placed a piece of paper with a 91 circled in the corner on Marilyn’s desk she felt determined to feel that rush of pride or accomplishment again.

And here she was, in the class session before Professor Genz’s next exam-4 exams since her 91. Genz had set up this particular lecture so that half was his lecture and the last half of class was to give students the opportunity to ask questions. Marilyn readily raised her hand again and again. She filled most of the second portion of class. 

She was always the type to give her opinion in class more often than needed. She had no problem being the only student answering questions or being the only student asking questions. Marilyn was good at participating. She was also good at studying. What she wasn’t good at, however, was getting along with others. Or at least that’s what she told herself. She found her relationship with her roommate to be enough proof of that.

Some of the students began to look around and make goofy exchanges around the classroom. Marilyn pretended to be oblivious. Professor Genz seemed to be pleased with her care in his class, which is all that mattered to her. She needed to make her status and title of ‘highest scoring student’ is tact. No, she was definitely not the best with people. But she was determined to put that worry to the backburner.

After class Marilyn goes back to her dorm and is surprised to see that her roommate is still there. The lights were turned down and the window shutters were closed. The only light coming from her blaring TV god how Marilyn hated that TV. Her roommate, Holly, was curled in her bed, the covers over her head, despite it being the afternoon.

Marilyn’s eyes furrowed. When her roommate was like this it was impossible to turn any lights on or do just about anything without her getting upset at her. She wasn’t supposed to be here. It was Friday afternoon and Holly normally went back home for the weekend, typically leaving on Friday morning.

Marilyn gently put her backpack down near her desk. She looked up at the lump of a blanket that was Holly. A few pieces of her cool blonde hair managed to escape her blanket cocoon and lie openly on her pillow.

“Marilyn” said a muffled voice with a slight lisp.  
Marilyn’s body jerked. It was as if her roommate saw her looking at her. Without her giving back a response, an arm shoots out from the blanket cocoon and points to Holly’s desk.  
“Marilyn can you get my goldfish for me, they’re in the top drawer” She asked in a nonnegotiable manner.

Marilyn quickly went to grab the goldfish and placed the pack gently beside what looked like her head. Sure, she may have a hard time getting along with others at times, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try her best to be nice to them.

Holly’s arm came out of the blanket once again to take the goldfish within. Quiet crunching pursued.  
“Are you not going home this weekend?”

The blanket immediately started shifting as Holly sat up, her face now visible. She looked annoyed and careless at the same time. 

“NO. My car broke down so I can’t get there and when I called my parents about it to, you know, to see if they could pick me up for the weekend we got in a big argument over my grades even though I’ve never told them what my grades even fucking are but okay I think my mom is still mad about when I accidentally backed into our neighbour’s mailbox because she blamed me for my car breaking down.  
"Whatever, I don’t want to be around their assfaces anyways.”

Marilyn nodded her head. She knew all the thoughts in her head would only turn into arguments if she vocalized them and she couldn’t tell whether or not her roommate was just complaining or if she was genuinely upset. No, she would not say well, you skip all your classes everyday and the only reason your car broke down was because you left it running when you went to class. Not today. Not on a Friday afternoon, the time she normally had her dorm to herself.

“So when do you usually go home?” Holly asked before putting more goldfish in her mouth.

“Saturday morning.”

“Ew.”

“Yeah I know.” Marilyn says before getting into how her parents prefer to pick her up after their morning errands on Saturday than on Friday, typically the day her family likes to eat takeout food. She was trying to maintain the pleasant conversation between them. If this counted as pleasant.

“So basically you’re the bottom of their to-do list.” Holly said with a smile...or sneer maybe. Marilyn chuckled. 

“I guess that’s what happens when you have five siblings.” So far, so good. The conversation was functioning properly. But Marilyn had homework she had planned doing this afternoon in her dorm. She backed into her desk and reached behind her in search of her lamp switch. She noticed a twitch in Holly’s face, but decided to ignore it. The library closed in ten minutes from now. There was no other place Marilyn could study but here in her dorm.

“Don’t you have like, 95’s in all of your classes? Do you really need to study that often?”

“No, I have three A’s and three B’s. Even if I did have all 95’s I don’t see why I can’t want to improve.” things weren’t looking too good anymore.

“Overachiever” Holly snickered, Marilyn became suddenly aware of how loud her chewing was. Why did she always have to do this kind of thing?  
“At least I’m not on the way to getting a GPA of .03” I shouldn’t have said that. Marilyn thought to herself. Holly’s chewing stopped.

“Did you even go to any of your classes today?” stop. 

“Maybe you don’t have all 95’s but I know you want to. I wouldn’t trade my future .03 for crying every night over an 87 for shit. Fuck you I was just joking anyways.”

“Well it’s hard to tell your joking when you critique how much I study whenever I’m near you. We’re paying to be here you know.”

“Shut up Merle. I’m going to sleep you’re giving me a headache.”

Merle. Marilyn isn’t sure when Holly picked up that nickname for her. Regardless, she didn’t like it.

That’s where their conversation ended. Marilyn sighed and turned to sit in her desk. Why did the library have to close early on Fridays?

 

Study  


Study  


Study

That’s all Marilyn cared about doing. She was determined to get the highest grade in the upcoming test. They way some of her peers give her a side eye, thinking she was an overachiever, Marilyn was sure. Other peers challenged her, “I’ll get you this next test!”, those were her favorite peers, she’d smile big and say something along the lines of “The best you’ll be able to do is tie me”. Whether or not the attention was positive, Marilyn felt as if she was being noticed for something she was doing right whenever Professor Genz put the test back on her desk before letting everyone know she had the highest grade.

So she would study here at her desk, in her dorm room, her back facing her roomates sleeping body. She decided she would study until 7pm and then pack up her clothes and bedsheets to bring home and wash for tomorrow morning.

By six o’clock her mind was beginning to wonder, she was thinking about her mom and her siblings, who’d she see this weekend. She’d probably hang out with her younger sister, April, ever since, their oldest sister got married and moved out of the room. April would probably have friends over. They’d probably hover over April’s laptop together as they ate whatever snacks were available in the kitchen. Marilyn would be on her own bed, using her own laptop, probably going back and forth between socializing with her sister and her friends to minding her business- watching netflix or studying for classes.

Maybe one of her friends back from high school would ask to hang out. She’d have an hour long conversation talking about extended family members or people from their church with her mom at the dinner table after everyone else had already got up and finished eating. She liked those talks. Marilyn talked to her mother often. Holly has told her she calls her too much a few times and everytime Marilyn calls her mom to ask if she thinks that’s true.

At seven Marilyn started packing her accumulated dirty clothes into the small suitcase she kept in her closet for whenever she went home on the weekends. She decided to pack one pair of shoes in the suitcase and wear one other. She put away her textbooks and notes into her backpack. She felt she had done enough of her homework and studying for the day. She grabbed her laptop and plopped it onto her bed along with herself. She looked up. Marilyn was now facing her roommate’s tv rather than having her back towards it. It looked like some reality tv show was playing. Nothing Marilyn would be interested in. She played around on her laptop, doing nothing in particular. She simply looked through friend’s feeds on instagram and twitter. She somehow managed to do this until 10:30pm. Then she fell asleep.

Marilyn’s weekend at home was what she expected it to be. She studied, chatted with her sister and her friends, had long talks with her mom, and avoided conflict. Her mom asked her if she was getting along any better with Holly in a hopeful tone that Marilyn felt bad to let down. 

Before she knew it it was monday morning and she was getting ready to head to Professor Genz classroom. This was it. Her time to show off how well she does on tests. She sat in her seat five minutes before the class started. Professor Genz had yet to make an appearance.

Professor Genz came into the classroom and asked questions loosely from his test to the students before handing out the exams. Marilyn answered the questions until Genz started saying “Someone other than Marilyn”. That didn’t stop her from raising her hand. She was determined for her knowledge to be acknowledged. 

Marilyn was one of the first to finish the test. It was easy enough, she thought. She just wanted to know how she scored. Or better yet, she wanted hear her Professor say she got the highest score and to see that ‘A’ plastered on her paper. She already knew how she scored, she just wanted to hear it.

Marilyn decided to relax a bit after the exam and went back to her dorm, planning to call her mom and then watch something on Netflix. Holly was yet again in her bed with all the lights off in the room. Marilyn figured she’d get upset at her if she heard her on the phone with her mom, so Marilyn just watched Netflix while making a mental note to call her mom on the way to the library later in the day.

After taking too long to pick out a show to watch and two episodes later Marilyn packed her things for Professor Genz’ class and went to the library. On her way she called her mom and filled her in on the test.  
“I feel really good about it. I was the first to finish! Uhhg I just wanna see what I got already.” She said while making hand gestures even though there was no way her mom could see them. She probably looked crazy- Marilyn was aware and slightly conscious of this.

Marilyn’s mom listened to her as she went on about Professor Genz and how smart Marilyn thought he was. Marilyn then went on to talk about her other professors and classes- she talked about them as if they were her friends. 

“Yeah Greg came into class with his pockets stuffed with caramel candies like the dork he is. I asked for one but he said only if I wasn’t too chatty. I didn’t get the caramel candy” 

“Greg?” Her mom asked

“Professor Genz. Mom, I’ve told you this”

“Right, right” she waved her daughter off

“UUHG I just wanna see what I got!” Marilyn brought up once again and their conversation circled around that for a little later.

 

***

It was two classes later that Professor Genz was ready to hand back out the tests, this time a wide grin on his face.

“There was one person who managed to get a 100 on the test this time” He quickly glanced in Marilyn’s direction, then looked back to everyone else. She perked up as he walked in the direction of where she sat. 

A one hundred. I can’t believe it. She thought.

Professor Genz stopped at the right of her desk. He licked his finger before pulling the top paper from the pile of tests. A smile was making its way on Marilyn’s face. Professor Genz held up the single paper a little longer than necessary for dramatic effect. Then he put on the desk right across from Marilyn.

“Good job, Rory” he said quietly as went on to pass out tests. Marilyn looked as the girl’s face lit up. This girl who never noticed until now despite sitting in front her. She had long, black fluffy looking hair with full across bangs and greyish blue eyes and freckles sprinkled across her face. For someone who sat face to face to her, Marilyn should’ve notice her by now.

She didn’t realize she was staring at her until the girl looked up from her perfectly scored paper and right into Marilyn’s eyes. And she smiled. And Marilyn took that as competition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes this chapter ended up a lot longer than i planned- i wanted it to be a little lower than 1000 whoops. This will probably be the worst chapter in this story just because i was getting impatient to get to when Rory gets the perfect score instead of Marilyn. The scene with Marilyn and Molly also went on longer than I planned, I’m not sure if it was a necessary conversation to include lol. I feel a little bad about skipping the weekend with Marilyn’s family- but I don’t think they’re all that important for the time being. I did try and throw in some sprinkles to show the closeness Marilyn has with her mother though. I also can’t help but feel like Marilyn came across as dislikable in this chapter? She’s kind of bad at keeping her opinions to herself lol. I’m not sure if I should explain her character more here- hopefully I’ll get across what her character is about better throughout the story.  
> I think those are all my notes! Please stick by! I’m pretty sure my next chapter will be more fun to read!


	2. Broken Patterns and Pre-established Crushes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short-lived rivalry erupts between the two.

The next time Professor Genz hands out the tests someone scored a perfect one hundred again. This time, however, the test with a 100 written on the top right corner was put on Marilyn’s desk. Oh, how she had missed being the top scorer in the class.

Marilyn looked up at Rory. She had gotten a 97-missing one question.  _ Was it the question about which countries were in the Triple Alliance? Even after taking American history a million times I still get the two alliances mixed up. _ She wondered. It was the one question Marilyn had worried she gotten wrong.

Marilyn moved her eyes up to Rory’s face. She was staring right at her.  _ Oh.  _ Marilyn thought intelligently. Rory didn’t look mad, she didn’t really look anything. Was she secretly plotting against her? Marilyn wasn’t sure. Would it have been weirder if she  _ did _ look angry? Was this even a competition? People have told Marilyn before that she can turn things into a competition that the other person never even saw as a competition. Wait, how long have they been looking at each other now?

“I wonder who will get the 100 next test.” Professor Genz said looking between the two of them with an amused smile. A few of the students chuckled.

 

Two weeks later and Rory returned to being the one student who made a perfect score on the test. Marilyn had gotten a 96, missing one and a half questions  _ and she could’ve sworn that her explanation on Rasputin’s death was right.  _ So much so she asked Professor Genz about it.

“Your answer wasn’t wrong, but it needed more.” He said

“Yes, he was attempted to be killed many times before ultimately drowning to death- but who tried to kill him? And what were the methods used to try and kill him? Why did they want to kill Rasputin in the first place?” He continued

“ _ It’s important to keep the details in mind, Marilyn _ ” She nodded her head at what her professor had to say to her. She’d have to admit her defeat here.

Before Marilyn and Rory left the classroom one of their classmates, a boy with ashen blond hair and dark circles under eyes, pointed at the two of them playfully. He told the two of them that in their next text he’d be the one to make a one hundred and then laughed and walked off.

The next time the class got their exams back Marilyn was the only one to get a one hundred. Before Professor Genz had put the test down on her desk, she and Rory were exchanging odd grimaces to one another. So far the one hundred goes back and forth each test. It’s an odd phenomenon.  The boy who said he was going to get a better test score than the two of them did not come to class the day of the test and has yet to take it.

When Marilyn goes to the library later that day she notices a certain head of long dark poofy hair at a desk between a few bookshelves. Marilyn walked past them. Was that Rory? Does she go to the library to study too?

The next few days Marilyn goes to the library she notices the head of long dark poofy hair in the same spot every time. It was the desk in between the second and third row of bookshelves. It was close to the corner of the library and lights were slightly dimmer.  _ Has she always been there?  _

The day before the next test when Marilyn looked over to the desk between the second and third row a pair of grey-blue eyes met hers. What the- Rory smiled. Without thinking, Marilyn waved and then paced over to her usual spot in the library. She tried to shake away the thought of how cute Rory’s smile was. Seriously, why was she thinking that?

Marilyn is able to study adequately that night, however as she’s leaving the library she notices Rory still studying. It’s almost 10 pm at this point! Does she plan to stay till closing? Marilyn suddenly felt the urge to stay and study longer too, but she decided against it.

 

The next day in Professor Genz classes the moment Marilyn and Rory are both in the class they share a series of competitive smiles with each other, waiting to for the test with the perfect score to be placed on their desk. The professor walks up between the two of their desks with a small grin. He holds a single test up in the air for one too many seconds long before putting the test on Marilyn’s desk. Now she was grinning too. It was a lot shorter lasting though. She looked at the score on her paper.

 

**96.5**

 

“Wait a minute-Greg-” She protested to get the teacher’s attention.

 

The next test was put on Rory’s desk. It was marked with a one hundred. Professor Genz laughed. Marilyn choked on her words. This asshole.

Well, it looks like the pattern has persisted.

 

Marilyn begins to stay at the library later. One day she stays till 10:30, the next it’s 10:50, then 11:30. Each time Rory is still there when she leaves. Why is she making this so hard?

The next time Marilyn is at the library she stays until closing, midnight. Finally, Rory isn’t the last to leave. They end up being outside the library doors at the same time. Marilyn is oddly irked by the fact there is no way to up her in this situation. They look at each other, standing outside of the library.

“Do you  _ always _ leave at closing?” Marilyn asks without thinking

Rory gives her a slightly confused expression as if she wasn’t sure whether or not the question was directed at her despite the two of them being the only two out on the seeable campus. Even in the darkness of the night, Marilyn could see how stiff Rory looked.

“Not  _ always _ .” She mumbled

“Really? You’re always here so late! I hope you don’t because, jeez, this is my first time staying here till closing and I’m exhausted. Not sure how someone could do this every day. Clearly, not a lot of people do that though since it’s just us out here.” Marilyn finished,  realizing she had rambled a bit. Rory blinked.

“I usually leave near closing time but hardly ever _ at _ the closing time. I sort of lost track of time today.” She responded shortly. Her posture was still stiff and she kept looking in the direction of Pine Hall, one of the dorm buildings.

“You live in Pine?”

“Yeah, sorry. I just remembered something.” Rory apologized after realizing Marilyn noticed her looking back to the dorms.

Marilyn said it was fine and that she should be heading to her dorm as well and they parted ways.  _ I just remembered something.  _ That’s a bit vague and cryptid. Marilyn thought.

 

Marilyn was beginning to think Rory was lying when she said she doesn’t always leave at closing. She wasn’t sure- after that night she usually made sure she left before 11:30. Unlike Rory,  Marilyn's dormitory is across campus and there’s something about walking alone on campus at midnight that didn’t sit well with her. Even if 11:30 was only a thirty-minute difference. Even if this college campus was rather small and stranded looking at most times.

Marilyn was both annoyed and impressed with how much Rory worked on her classes. She must get distracted at times, sure. But her relentlessness is still there regardless. It made feel like she had work hard too.

 

The next time Professor Genz handed out tests he stood between Marilyn and Rory’s desks for an extended amount of time as usual. Both Marilyn and Rory had pressed, competitive smiles on their faces.

Marilyn was becoming more familiar with Rory’s face. Things like how her dimples made her cheeks look poofier as she tried to hide her smile from across the room, or how it was clear she died her hair darker based off the reddish-brown tint her hair had as the light from outside the windows hit her and how her eyeshadow isn’t brown but actually a very toned purple.

Professor Genz took two tests from the his pile of papers, putting one on Marilyn’s desk and the other on Rory’s. Both were both marked with 100’s. They had finally broken the pattern.

  
  


The next day when Marilyn goes to the library something odd happens. As she walks to her spot in the library she notices no one is sitting in the desk between the second and third row of bookshelves.  _ I wonder where she is. _

Rory not going to the library for one day isn’t odd. Marilyn knows that. What is odd, however, is Rory walking up to Marilyn, a classmate she’s hardly talked to at this point and ask to sit next to her in the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol, Professor Genz is a fucking troll. The next chapter will be in Rory’s perspective, which will probably be more in my comfort zone tbh. As a rather quiet person in real life, I've noticed it’s kind of hard to write in the perspective of a chatty, blabber mouthed character like Marilyn- like I don’t know if she’s coming across as chatty at this point. There are so many times I’m tempted to write something like I couldn’t think of anything to say or I didn’t know how to respond and I always have to remind myself that Marilyn is chatty and someone who normally speaks her mind before thinking and wouldn’t have these moments of not having anything to say as often as I subconsciously write them in haha. I think I’m getting the hang of her though.


	3. Waiting for the Times and the Moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rory is a frustrated gay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, sobbing in my own puddle of tears: I FINALLY FINISHED THIS CHAPTER
> 
> Guys. Since the last five weeks that I updated chapter two I got sick not once, 
> 
> But twice.
> 
> I might be cursed or something.
> 
> So yeah, that was fun to write through. Between getting sick and juggling school, this chapter took a while so sorry about that hehe.
> 
> I feel like I put a lot more effort into this chapter than the last two, so I hope it shows!!
> 
> This chapter is in Rory’s perspective! From now on I’ll probably go back and forth between Marilyn and Rory’s perspective. Plus a few surprise guests a little later in the story ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).
> 
> Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!
> 
> Songs to listen to: At Seventeen by Janis Ian  
> I listened to a mixture of the 1982 Annie’s soundtrack, Animal Crossing’s soundtrack (don’t judge me it helps me concentrate), and my own playlist on spotify that you guys could also listen to while reading this.
> 
> playlist: spotify:user:romance.junkie:playlist:43RtamqZ0V3rtW9SPVvupG

“Just promise me you’ll never leave the state?” Cara, Rory’s one friend, asked her.

           

She was facetiming her in her dorm. Her legs relaxed on top her desk as she slouched in her chair. Cara had the camera way too close to her face while Rory held her phone so that the camera didn’t capture anything lower than her eyes.

 

“You say that like you didn’t plan on coming here.”

 

Rory replies to Cara with a smile that Cara has no ability to see. At this point they were able to joke about it. They were supposed to go to this college together after all.

 

“You can’t move Rory, you’re my only friend!”

 

“But I hate North Carolina. So much.”

 

“Uh, me too.”

 

“It’s too hot”

 

“YOU ALWAYS WEAR BLACK”

 

“Well I can’t help that”

 

“What do you mean y- you know what, okay.”

 

The sound of Rory’s door being unlocked and opened turned her attention in that direction. Standing in the doorway was her roommate. Rory quickly put her headphone jack in her phone so her roommate wouldn’t hear her conversation.

She looked back at her phone, Cara’s face still being close as ever. She had a funny grin on her face now.

“What’s her name?” the question led to Rory’s face heating up.

 

“Why would I say it when she’s in the room right now? That’s weird.”

 

“OH MY GOD YOU STILL DON’T KNOW HER NAME” She roared

 

“Oh my god. Shut up.” She said in the midst of Cara’s laughter as an attempt to stop her. Rory hates her. Or at least she says so every now and then but ultimately knows it’s untrue.

 

Once Cara calms down a brief silence falls over them. “So, um.” Rory awkwardly tried to continue their conversation. She wasn’t sure why she got weird about talking on the phone whenever her roommate was in the room, just a symptom of being socially awkward, she assumed. She wondered if her roommate could tell.

 

            It didn’t take long for the conversation to die out between Rory and Cara; maybe an hour of talking after her roommate had come into the room.

            Rory’s roommate, who’s name she didn’t know, turned on the tv in their room. She didn’t mind it.When it came to noise and chaos she felt as if her family had helped shape her so that she actually preferred to work in those kind of settings. Not to mention it toned out the silence between her and her roommate, made it less obvious, less felt. What else could Rory ask for.

_A friendship?_

_To actually talk to each other?_

            She’s never had those things in close proximity. She wouldn’t even know how to handle that kind of thing. She only had Cara, and while they were best friends and knew each other better than anyone else they never hung much after school in high school outside of phone calls. That was supposed to change this year.

            Rory suddenly felt the urge to turn around, turn away from her laptop and face where her roommate was lying. _Yeah and then what? Ask her about the classes I’ve heard her complain about over the phone? Or her parents, who I also hear her complaining about over the phone? Or do I just start small talk with her because everyone loves that. Not to mention I can’t manage doing small talk to save my life._ _I’ll never understand how people just...talk._

She turned her mind back onto what she was doing beforehand: watching shows with dark humor, because those always had characters that could make her feel better about herself. At least she wasn’t doing as bad as those guys. As she watched her show she thought to herself that maybe she would try to talk to her roommate tomorrow, and maybe that that it would actually work.

 

            Well, the next day came around. Rory’s first class was at 10am and her roommate’s was at 9:30am. Rory was up before her roommate, she normally took more time to get ready plus Rory enjoyed watching a few episodes of a show to ease her way into the day.

She didn’t try to talk with her roommate before she left for her class. It’s early and she’s getting ready. Rory would only be a distraction. However, as her roommate was closing the door to their dorm she let a quiet “bye”. It oddly made Rory happy and she said bye back.

 

            Rory scheduled her classes so they’re all right after the other, that way she gets them all out of the way. Because of this she doesn’t get back to her dorm until the afternoon. When she opens the door her roommate looks up from under the covers of her bed and smiles at her. She says hi and Rory says it back. She goes to her desk. Now would be the optimal time to try and start a conversation with her, Rory knows this. She even considers saying something funny to break the ice that probably should’ve been broken weeks ago. She even turns her head slightly in the direction of her roommate’s bed and she opens her mouth. Then at that moment her stomach twists and she feels a weird sensation in her chest. She turns back to face her desk and feels ridiculous in a million different ways. _It really shouldn’t be that hard._ She repeats in her head several times.

           

The next day Rory wakes up feeling a little better. She had her favorite class that morning, after all. And classes were the one thing she felt she had complete control over in college.

Rory gets ready for class and leaves the dorm. Once again being a conversation-less morning. People don’t normally talk in the morning though, so she shouldn’t get hung up about it.

When she walks into the classroom only two people are actively talking. By this point she’s figured that that’s the norm in college morning classes. She didn’t need to look to know that one of the two students talking was the girl that sits across from her. She was both talkative with the professor and the students. *

At the precise time class started, Professor Genz walked in the classroom with a large pile of papers tucked under his arm and a mug of what Rory presumed to be coffee in his free hand. He took a long sip before putting the mug on his desk with more force than necessary. If it weren’t for the goofy grin on his face, Rory would’ve worried he was upset. Probably upset about the stack of papers under his arm, more specifically.

He walked down the classroom, now with the pile of papers in his hands.

 

“The highest score this test was a 96.”

 

            No one was surprised when Professor Genz put the test marked with a messy 96 written in red ink on Marilyn’s, the chatty girl sitting across from Rory, desk.

 

“How is Marilyn always the one with the highest grade when she’s the one asking the dumbest questions.” The boy sitting in the seat behind Marilyn said humorously.

 

            Soft chuckles erupted among the class. Marilyn quickly turned around in her seat to face the boy and rebuttal his playful insult. This got a laugh out of professor Genz. Among the class chuckling and even throwing out remarks of their own, Rory smiled.

Rory was learning that in college you go through most classes without learning any of your classmates’ names. You go to class, listen to the lecture, and leave. She’s found it to make making friends even more difficult than it was in high school. Marilyn was an exception, however. Whether it be a good or bad thing, everyone in that class was aware of who Marilyn was: the chatty girl who always asked questions in class and got the highest score on every exam.

            Professor Genz eventually told everyone to calm down and begun passing out the rest of the tests. Rory was pretty sure that he handed the rest of the exams out of order, as it was after at least ten people that she got her own exam back, an 89. When he was finished passing out exams he went back to the front of the classroom and went on about how overall our class did well, some did great, and others did bad. The usual schtick, it seems.

 

            Once Rory got through all her classes she returned right back to her dorm. Her roommate was sitting at her desk making…origami figures?

 

“Is that origami?” slipped out of her mouth before she thought to stop herself. Her dormmate just laughed, thankfully.

 

“Yeah, I was bored.” Was her reply. Rory nodded her head, because she didn’t know what else to do, then sat at her own desk.

            The thought of starting a conversation with her roommate briefly crossed her mind. She decided against it, this time because she was tired and wanted to relax. She wanted to celebrate the sense of relief after getting a good grade on her history exam. Celebrating being not talking her dormmate and watching shows for two hours. _God when I think of it like that…_ Rory tried to put her self judgement of her anti-socialness to the side. _For another time_ , she thought.

 

***

            The week before professor Genz’s next exam came quickly. Rory was determined to memorize and understand all the material like the back of her hand. Everyday she went to library right after class and didn’t leave until closing. She wasn’t sure why, but her desire to get an A was significantly high.

            She normally studied in her dorm room, however she was beginning to get too used to the same scenery and was getting distracted easier.

            Rory began to notice a certain small figure with silky bronze hair put into a high messy bun walk pass her in the library every day. Guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that Marilyn comes here to study as well.  She always came across as the kind of person who understood things easily and didn’t need to study much to Rory, however.

 

            The day of the next exam, a few minutes prior to class starting, Rory eyes lingered on the bronze haired girl who sat across from her. She was arguing with the guy sitting behind her as well as the guy next to her. It sounded like it had something to do with an old Saturday cartoon show. Rory’s mind was elsewhere however.

            She had seen Marilyn walk past her in the library everyday that week. She wondered how confident she felt in the material. Rory felt fairly confident in her knowledge of everything they were going to be tested on. She even played around with the idea of if she were to get a higher score than Marilyn. Her test grades are never that far off from her own after all.

            Marilyn was the first to finish her exam. It had to have taken her no less than twenty minutes. Rory wasn’t exactly sure, but that was about how long it felt. Noticing how she was barely halfway done with the exam, it oddly pressured her. _How did she do that?_

            Not only did she finish quickly but she looked so confident in the way she carried herself as she got up and handed her to paper Professor Genz. Rory imagined if she were the first one to finish a test she would probably wait until someone else finished and got up just to avoid anyone looking at her. It’s a good thing she’s a slow test taker. Rory is the second to last to hand in her exam to professor Genz. He smiled and thanked her, as most professors do.

 

***

            The next time professor Genz comes into the classroom with a stack of papers under his arm he right off the bat says “There was one person who managed to get a 100 on this test”

 

“Bruh.” Was blurted out in a monotone tone from the boy sitting behind Marilyn. A few chuckles went throughout the class. He was similar to Marilyn in the sense that they were talkative and typically the main vocals in the class.

 Everyone in the class was on their phones, not seeming to care about the highest test score. They knew how it went already. The few people who weren’t on their phones were looking at Marilyn expectantly while Marilyn beamed at professor Genz.

            Professor Genz walked down the classroom so that he was standing between Rory and Marilyn’s desks. He just kind of stands there for a bit, making Rory only pay closer attention to him. He looks at Marilyn with a goofy smile before turning to face Rory.

 Rory could feel her shoulders tense up when he made eye contact with her. He smiled at her and semi-slammed her paper onto her desk and then told her good job. The good job was surprisingly quiet. So much so that probably only Rory and those sitting near her would be able to hear it. That quiet ‘good job’ was the only thing Rory had seen professor Genz do that wasn’t overly dramatic.

            Rory looked down at her paper just to make sure there wasn’t a mistake. Nope. There it was. A sloppily written 100 in red ink. She felt the corner of her lips curl up before she could stop herself. She’d have to call Cara after class. Maybe even try calling her mom.

            Rory snapped out of her thoughts when she sensed eyes on her. She looked up and met Marilyn’s eyes. She looked at her as if she just realized she existed. It took only a few seconds for Rory to look away with the hope that Marilyn would stop paying attention to her. _I’ve had enough eye contact for one day, thank you._

            She wasn’t sure why, but Rory felt strangely embarrassed. She could feel heat rush to her cheeks. And all she could think at that moment was _face please don’t do this._

            In a trivial panic she glanced at Marilyn and to her relief she was now slightly turned in her seat talking to the boy behind her, no longer looking at her.

            The class continued as normal after Professor Genz finished giving back exams, but something felt off to Rory after that. Marilyn had become just a little more noticeable than she already was. And by the end of class it dawned on her.

She’s sure she would’ve found the class to be one of her more favorable ones just by being a history lecture hall. However, there was something other than the material that made the class entertaining. The girl sitting across from her was so outspoken and inquisitive that a lot of times it felt as if she and Genz were bantering in the middle of class. Rory was sure this was reason to why other kids in the class were comfortable with participating openly in class as well. The few that did, that is.

            All the class periods of her asking professor Genz question after question, building a friendly acquaintance with him, jokingly countering the classmates that asker her if she ever had nothing to say. She did it all so effortlessly. It wasn’t until now, their fourth exam, when Rory placed higher than the chatty girl in her class, that she realized she had been admiring her from afar the whole time.

 

***

 

As soon as Rory finished all her classes for the day she called Cara, as she promised herself she would.

 

“You WHAT” Cara squeaked out the end of the last word, her face moving even closer into the camera. Rory expects a part of this reaction is from the fact that she waited after about ten minutes random chatter to tell her.

 

“I got a 100”

 

“RORY THAT’S SO GOOD” Her face is so close through Rory’s phone screen, her eyes big with excitement.

 

“Yeah, I bought macaroni from the school store to celebrate.” Rory replies in her usual casual and monotone voice. Cara snorts.

 

“You always get macaroni from the school store”

 

“Well yeah but this time it’s with meaning”

 

“W-okay.” She’s says tiredly.

 Rory laughed. A lot of the things she said while talking to Cara were only semi-serious if not at all. Soon enough Cara is right back to smiling.

 

“Seriously though, I’m super proud of you” now it’s Rory’s turn to snort.

 

“Thanks mom”

 

“ _Speaking_ of which?” _oh boy._ Rory knew where this was going. The way that suddenly Cara is no longer to close to the camera in their facetime gave Rory a feeling she was about ask Rory something more serious.

 

“Have you talked to your mom?”

 

“I tried to right after I finished that class, you know, on my way to my other classes, but she didn’t pick up”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Cara said in a low tone, all signs of humor leaving her voice. Rory hated it. None of it was that big of a deal after all.

 

“It’s fine”

 

Cara was one of the few people Rory felt comfortable talking to, but she was no exception to when Rory didn’t want to talk about her emotions or feelings.

 

“I know it’s not the same, but you could always try calling Edmond! You guys always got along really well in school!”

 

always got along with her brother, Edmond. She sometimes thought he was the only proof that she was legitimately related to her family because he was the only one with a similar personality to hers.

 

“I meant later.” Cara’s eyebrows were raised when she said this, as if she was waiting for when Rory made another excuse.

 

“I have homework later.” Rory could hear Cara groan on the other side of the phone. Cara was right though, and Rory knew that. She should try harder to keep in touch with her brother. It also makes sense for Rory to be the one to reach out considering she’s the older sibling. She’s not in high school anymore. Close, but not there anymore. She should try and start putting more of an effort to act maturely in relationships. Of course, Rory could never admit all this to Cara, already taking a step backwards to acting more maturely in relationships.

 

“Do you really wanna lose one of your two friends?” Cara said, referring to herself and Edmond. Rory could tell she meant the comment as a joke; however, it was a truth Rory was never too bothered with. For the most part.

 

“No. Being stuck with you and only you would be a nightmare” She joked back through a smile.

 

Cara laughed loudly before abruptly replying with “I can’t blame you.”

 

After that their conversation went back to overall meaningless chatter. Food discourse, the terror of middle school, favorite tv shows: the usual.

 

 

***

 

            The next exam in professor Genz’s class was two weeks later. He said another person managed to make a 100 on the exam this time. About five kids were watching as he held one individual piece of paper in his hand as he walked down the aisles of desks.

            Eventually he got to the space between Rory and Marilyn’s desks. He wears the amused smile he normally does on the day of giving out graded exams. Rory’s overheard the boy behind Marilyn call him a sadist. Both her and Marilyn laughed. Only thing was is that Rory was definitely not supposed to hear it and ended up looking like an eavesdropper. She was. It’s nature for a quiet person such as herself, but she didn’t need people to know that.

            Professor Genz puts test marked with a red 100 on Marilyn’s. “Looks like we’re back to our usual best scorer.” He said. An urge of competitiveness hit Rory at that moment and she suddenly felt compelled to do whatever she could to get the highest score once again.

            So not too much later, the next exam for professor Genz’s class was announced and Rory was at the library as soon as it happened. She would have to get a one hundred again if she wanted to get higher than Marilyn.

            Rory sat in the same place every trip to the library. She liked the spot and had grown comfortable to it. Sitting in the same spot of the library everyday also made it relatively hard not to notice Marilyn walking past the singular desk in between rows of bookshelves that Rory was hiding in. Throughout the days she noticed more things about Marilyn as she passed by where she sat. Like how she walked in an alarmingly quick pace and the keychain on her backpack, which made way too much noise for its own good. Some days Rory could hear her keychain bouncing off a cup of coffee she bought on her way there.

 

            In the next exam Rory had gotten what she wanted, the highest score in the class once again. And from that point on the highest scorer went back and forth between her and Marilyn.

            There was one time in the middle of this competition they had created when Rory looked directly at Marilyn when she passed by in library by accident. They both looked at each other for a brief second. Rory smiled because she wasn’t sure what else to do. Marilyn continued walking away even quicker than Rory was used to _._ She didn’t think much of it and returned to her notes.

            After that it felt to Rory as if before Professor Genz handed out exams that she and Marilyn were in a smirk contest of some sorts. Sometimes they’d both just happen to look at each other at the same time and smirk briefly before looking away. Other times their smirks would linger.

            There was a time in class Rory remembers when their class was covering WWI and in this lecture professor Genz stopped and asked, “How many of you know who Rasputin is?” and Rory and Marilyn plus one other person in the class raised their hand.

            Rory looked around the classroom and felt her face scrunch up in disappointment. She could believe the majority of the class didn’t know a historical figure as interesting as Rasputin. She heard someone laugh. She looked in the direction of Marilyn, who was smiling at her. _Oh._ Rory looked down at her desk to try and stop herself from smiling as well. The attempt failed.

 

The next time professor Genz handed out exams he put the first one on Marilyn’s desk. The only thing was is that on her exam there was a big, red 96.5 written on the top of the exam. Her eyebrows furrowed. She looked like she was about to argue something. Professor Genz turned to face Rory, wearing a huge, goofy smirk.

 

“Wait a minu-Greg!” Marilyn blurted before he put the next exam on Rory’s desk. It had a one hundred on it. Marilyn made an undecipherable noise. Professor Genz laughed loudly. _What a goddamn troll._

Okay, it was _kind of_ funny. The way Marilyn was briefly wordless and even looked slightly embarrassed. _Just a little bit_.

 

            At the end of that class, a few kids went up to professor Genz to ask him about their grade on the exam. Marilyn was unsurprisingly one of them. Rory ended up overhearing some of their conversation as she was putting her things in her bag.

 

“Marilyn, what did I say about students getting an A on the exam not coming to ask me about their grade on it?”

 

“I know, I know, okay? But it was a _low_ A” Rory smiled at that and then left the classroom. No need to look like she was eavesdropping.

 

***

For the next two weeks Rory goes through her same silent routine. She thinks about talking to her roommate in the morning but convinces herself out of it, goes to class- on Tuesdays and Thursdays thinks about talking to Marilyn in class, goes to the library and studies, goes to her dorm, thinks about talking to her roommate again if she happens to still be awake.

One night during these two weeks Marilyn ends up leaving the library at the same time as Rory and starts talking to her. And Rory goes quiet. She can’t think of a single good thing to say to her.

 

“Do you always leave the library this late?” Marilyn asks her, her voice breaking silence of the dark night. Her voice was full of energy despite the time and had a directness that shoot right through Rory.

 

Rory checks her phone even though she’s fully aware of what time it is. She looks to Marilyn’s face, still decipherable in the darkness. She could see her heart shaped face, and her bronze hair that almost looked like it was glowing, as if it absorbed the light from the nearby light pole. And then there was her golden-brown eyes that were even brighter than her hair. Rory then remembered that she should probably respond to Marilyn’s question.

 

“Not _always_ ” She answered shortly.

 

Marilyn continued to look at her, and she could tell that she was waiting for her to say more. _Come on say something. Anything. You’ve literally been wanting to talk to her. Mention how this is first time she’s left at closing like me. Talk about history class. Bring up how you’re slightly hungry but don’t have any food in your dorm and how every restaurant is closed at this time, that’s probably something she could find relatable as another student that lives on campus. This isn’t hangman, no one’s dying here and you’re too self-conscious to end up saying anything **too** bizarre so just say somethi_

Rory was broken from her thoughts as she watched Marilyn ramble on.

 

“-ou’re always here so late! I hope you don’t because, jeez, this is my first time staying here till closing and I’m exhausted. Not sure how someone could do this every day. Clearly not a lot of people do that though since it’s just us out here.”

 

Rory blinks a few times in slight confusion. The question of why Marilyn even thought to talk to her is loud in Rory’s mind and yet there’s also a sense of relief that fell over her. That’s right. Marilyn’s chatty. She manages to talk easily with everyone. Suddenly the uncomfortableness and hesitance she had felt earlier seemed silly.

There’re a few seconds of silence between them as Marilyn sways a little in place. It causes her keychain a rhythmic clunk noise every time it fell against her coffee cup. For whatever reason, the word coffee lingered in Rory’s head. She stared at the coffee cup on the side of Marilyn’s bag until it hit her. _The coffee pot._ She didn’t turn it off before leaving her dorm.

Rory looks in the direction of her dormitory hall. She wonders if her roommate might’ve noticed and turned it off for her but found it less than likely. It would probably be crossing some boundary the two haven’t crossed yet. At this point it doesn’t even matter, the pot has definitely cracked at this point and wait, she was definitely supposed to respond to Marilyn by this point.

 

“I usually leave near closing time but hardly ever _at_ closing time. I sort of lost track of time today.” She answers simply.

She glances back at her dormitory. Her mind is no longer occupied with ways to make conversation with the pensive Marilyn beside her. All her mind could think about was her definitely cracked coffee pot.

Clearly this was obvious, as Marilyn asked, “You live in Pine?” which was the name of the dormitory Rory stayed in.

Realizing this Rory apologized. “Yeah, sorry. I just remembered something.” Marilyn nodded and gave her a thumbs up before saying it’s fine. Rory nods back and rushes back to her dorm room.

She opens the door and puts her things down as quietly as possible. She walks over to her small coffee pot that sits on top of her dresser because there was no where else reasonable to it in her little, kitchen-less dorm room. The button at the bottom of the coffee maker beamed red. Rory sweared under her breath. She took the pot out and walked to their dorm’s bathroom and poured down the day old coffee into the sink, watching as it stained the white into a dirty beige.

After the pot was empty Rory examined it and sure enough, there was now a small crack near the bottom of it. It was small enough that Rory would still be able to use it, but that didn’t stop Rory from feeling incredibly stupid.

 

            She walks back into her dorm, puts the coffee pot back, and changed into her pajamas. As she lays in bed she thinks of her failed attempt to talk to Marilyn tonight along with her nonexistent relationship with her roommate, who she couldn’t even remember the name of. She thinks of her cracked coffee pot, feeling like only a complete screw up could make such a mistake. She wants to fall asleep to get rid of all these frustrating thoughts. She wants to get rid of them because they all feel so silly to her. All she could do was move around in her bed, waiting for these thoughts to be put at ease.

 

***

 

            Only a few weeks later, what was probably the unavoidable happened. Both Rory and Marilyn got a 100 on exam, and the pattern was finally broken.

            When professor Genz put the two perfectly scored exams on their desks they looked at each other once again.

 

“The fuck is wrong with y’all” the boy behind Marilyn mumbled in a deadpan tone.

 

Rory and Marilyn both laughed as they continued to look at each other. Rory noticed her hands felt a little sweaty at that moment. However, it took a few seconds for Marilyn to turn around and tell him to shut up in what she could only assume was a friendly way.

            Rory watched the two of them with fondness, and she realized that she wanted to be more acquainted with them. Being friends with them would be fun, she imagined. It would probably never happen, however. That’s just how those sorts of things go.

 

            After this realization however, she thought of different ways to stop Marilyn before she leaves the classroom and ask her if she’d liked to get lunch from the dinning hall with her. _I can’t do that, she probably doesn’t want to talk to anyone._ She’s thought of trying to make short talk with her before classes. _And say what? That the weathers nice? She’s going to think it’s weird that I’m trying to talk to her_ _._ None of it seemed to be a good idea to her (and even if it did odds are she wouldn’t ever be able to muster up the courage to talk to her).

           

Between trying (more like thinking) to talk to either Marilyn or even her roommate for the matter, she was beginning to get frustrated with herself again. She even had a small opening with her roommate. When she had had come back Monday afternoon after going home for the weekend she had asked Rory how her weekend was. Sure, it was small talk, but it was an opening to make conversation. Rory just answered with a short “good”. Her roommate nodded her head, and they went back to being to themselves.

 _How did I end up being friends with Cara?_ Was a question that Rory begun asking herself a lot. She kept looking back to her freshman year of high school, thinking of all the gym and band class periods they shared together. _How did we even happen?_ No, she knew the answer to that. It’s a really stupid answer, but _is_ one nonetheless.

It was around the third week of school and they were in band class. Both Rory and Cara were flute players. She remembers Cara’s eyes looking buggy as she pointed down at her feet as she squeaked out the teacher’s name. In confusion Rory looked down at her feet and there sat a large roach on her lunchbox and in one of her not so proud moments, she screamed  and hopped up on her chair. Because she wasn’t someone who people see as the type to scream _anything,_ her reaction rung a few laughs.

            After that class Cara had stopped to talk to her. She essentially went off about the people who laughed _as if they wouldn’t have done the same damn thing_ was her exact wording if Rory recalled correctly. After that they were always talking, sometimes to the point of coming across as inseparable. It was a friendship that happened out of sheer luck. Hoping to bond with someone over some freak insect incident isn’t exactly going to get her anywhere. That incident was the opening for their relationship however, it’s just that Cara was the one who took advantage of the opening. Maybe it’s time for Rory to take advantage of the possible openings she sees with people now.

 

So when Rory arrives to the library later than usual one day and sees Marilyn already sitting, down the hall from where Rory’s usual seat is, and with her laptop and notebooks out, Rory thinks she sees an opening. She’s stuck in place at first, looking at the back of Marilyn’s head. She moves.

She walks over to the desk next to Marilyn’s and drops her bag beside the chair. Marilyn looks up at her. She looks slightly confused, but not annoyed. _This is okay_.

 

“Is it okay if I sit with you?” Rory asked, feeling really weird and out of place. This. Was a bad idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man this chapter really just did not come to me. Lmao and I thought this was gonna be the easiest one to write. Lauren you absolute fool. I’m really bad starting chapters skjfjn. I also feel like I keep getting in the bad habit of just describing and summarizing what’s happening rather than actually writing in the present. I’m used to writing reviews and blog posts I’m sorry and I’m trying. jkbsksbf
> 
> Last chapter I said I was in love with Rory, but this chapter I was really loving Marilyn’s character. I guess I like them the most when I’m in the other’s perspective. God that’s so corny.
> 
> I hope you guys like Rory’s roommate, I plan on giving her some more scenes later on. She’s pretty cool. Oh, and don’t worry she’ll get a name soon enough skjbajb.
> 
> And what about that asswhole who sits behind Marilyn? Dnkasdkn I actually like him but I have a feeling a lot of people will find him annoying. He also might end up having some more scenes later- I’m not sure about him yet though


	4. Two Awkwards Even it Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah it’s been a while once again. I don’t have as many excuses as I did last chapter. There was a hurricane that hit in my area, so my way of transportation became more of a challenge (I do most of my writing of this story on the train/ light rail by the way) so that sucked. Regardless, sorry about the wait!  
> -You guys should brace yourselves. Things are gonna get awkward in this chapter. All of you pray for my disaster gays  
> -We’re going to go back and forth between Rory and Marilyn’s perspective in this chapter. I would typically try and avoid switching perspectives in the same chapter for the sake of choppiness, but I couldn’t find a way around it for this one.  
> -This chapter features: Rory not knowing how to make friends but trying her best.  
> -We’re getting into the gooey stuff now.  
> -This chapter also features: unaware pining

            Rory lets her bookbag fall off her shoulder and onto the ground so that it leans against the leg of the desk. Marilyn looks up to her face and smiles with what could only be out of politeness. Rory tries to smile. With the way her lips are curving it had to be a smile. And yet she felt like she was frowning. This is the seventh day that Rory has sat next to Marilyn in the library. She sits down in the desk and begins pulling out items from her bookbag. With each textbook and pen she puts on the desk she becomes more and more aware of the tension in her shoulders and the slight, almost unnoticeable shake in her arms. _This was a mistake, such a mistake._ How didn’t she stop and think what she was _actually going to say_ to her after she sat next to her? It’s now been seven days without her saying anything to Marilyn.

 _Marilyn was supposed to be chatty and talkative! Why hasn’t she said anything?_ Rory couldn’t help but think as she frustratingly stared down at her now open textbooks that she’s completely failing to pay attention to.

            _No. That’s not fair to her._ Rory knew she couldn’t put this on Marilyn. How do you respond to someone you’ve barely talked to when they ask to sit next to you in the library? God, she must think she’s so weird at this point.

            Rory quickly looks over to Marilyn, half of her bronzy hair put in a messy bun and her face glowing from her laptop screen. Whatever she was doing, she seemed focused. Rory wondered if she was weirded out by this situation. She had to be. Rory looks at her own laptop and textbooks, knowing she should try and study. But studying has never been so hard for her. Her discontent for her social life was at an all-time high.

            Seven days since she asked to next to Marilyn in the library. Seven days of her still not talking to her roommate; Seven days of her still not knowing her name. Seven days of her still not calling her mom. Seven days spent ruining the one potential friendship she thought she had.

            Then she realized if she wants something to change she’ll need to make the change come herself. She can’t keep waiting for everyone around her to make the first move. If she wants to become friends with Marilyn, then she’ll need to be the one to open the door to that possibility.

            Rory is brought back from her thoughts once the sound of her loudly tapping her pencil repeatedly registers in her head. She stares at her laptop without looking at it. _If I want to talk to her, I’ll have to say something._ Her stomach turned, and her chest felt as if it had been split open and filled with the cold air around them. _That’s easier said than done._ She told herself.

            She glanced back over to Marilyn for a split second before going back to facing her own desk. She was still doing her work, but Rory could’ve sworn her shoulders looked more tense than usual. _Great, she can tell I’m acting weird and made her uncomfortable._

That thought bothered Rory a lot. She felt determined to break this new pattern that had fallen among them. She refused for there to be a day eight of utter silence between them. She had to break it and break it today.

            Rory started jotting down things she thought she could say to Marilyn in her notebook that was meant for her math notes. She had her arm furiously hovering over her notebook as she did so in paranoia that Marilyn would somehow find a way to see through the desk and read it, and out of embarrassment. The embarrassment part ended up getting the better part of her. She ripped the paper out from her notebook and crumbled it up in a tight ball before flicking it into the corner of the desk. It was then that she suddenly felt eyes on her. She looked over to Marilyn, who turned her head to her laptop as soon as she had done so.

            Rory felt heat rise to her face. _No, please don’t turn red._ That’s it, she needed to get some air. Take a walk to calm down, maybe help her focus afterwards, get some coffee while she was at it and- _Coffee!_ Coffee, Rory thought she had finally found the solution she was looking for.

            She dug into her backpack in search of her wallet. She pulled it out and promptly stood up. She looked at Marilyn briefly. She must ask before she stops and thinks about it for too long. All she had to do was _say it._

“Do you, uh, want anything from Starbucks? I’m going down there quickly.” Marilyn looked up to her face as soon as she broke the overlying silence that was between them. After a few seconds, her eyes widened as if she had realized something.

“I actually left my wallet in my dorm, so no but thanks for asking!”

“I can buy you something,” Rory said way too quickly, and without thinking.

“Wait, really? Are you sure?” Marilyn’s eyebrows were furrowed in concern, however her voice sounded pleased. Maybe Rory was doing this right. She nodded her head.

“It’s fine”

“Okay, well if you say so then I’d like a caramel macchiato.” Marilyn said with a smile that looked so natural, as if her face just sat that way. Rory wondered how she did it. She felt her own lips begin to curl.

“Okay.” she could hear the stiltedness of her own voice.

            A few seconds passed without her moving. She was still looking at Marilyn, who was still smiling. It was as if she was waiting for someone to tell her ‘Okay, you can go now’.

_Okay, you can **go** now._

Rory shifted her stance awkwardly before turning away from Marilyn and finally beginning to walk.

            By the time she was out of the library her mind was racing a million thoughts. The slight curve of her lips has now turned into a stupid looking grin that made her dimples look like they were hurting her. She had managed to talk to Marilyn. It wasn’t a conversation, but a nice offering. Something easier for her. Maybe she hadn’t opened the door fully, as a matter of fact, she hasn’t even opened it enough to get her foot through, but the door was open nonetheless.

            A swift breeze blew past her, sending several brown leaves falling from the sky and messed up the parting of her hair. Regardless, she looked up in pleasure. The trees were full of different shades of brown, the grass was duller than it had been, and the air was cooler and more relaxed. It took a month into the season to finally feel like fall. Normally Rory would use the opportunity to be annoyed at how short-lived the autumns are in North Carolina, but today she was concerned with other things.

            Once she had reached the coffee shop, she began questioning all the choices she had made at the library. What if she had been too pushy? What if the only reason Marilyn had said yes was that Rory had pressured her? Is it okay to leave all her stuff with Marilyn? Sure, she wants to be friends with her, but does that mean she can trust her? What did she say she wanted again? A caramel macchiato, right? What size did she want and _oh my god I never found out what size she wanted._

Because it was the ripe time of 7 pm there wasn’t much time to spare Rory to further worry about Marilyn’s order considering the small line in the Starbucks. She decided on going with a grande. A medium should be the best route, she’s sure.

            For someone who considered talking to Marilyn for ages now, Rory really hadn’t thought this through. With a coffee in each hand, getting through the Starbucks door proved to be more of a challenge than she preferred. Then the true obstacle came. The library doors. Those heavy, pull doors. Rory ended up putting one of the coffees in between her arm and torso in order to have a free hand. Without realizing, she had squeezed the cup in between her arm, causing the drink to spill onto the side of her shirt. Everything she has done today has felt stupid, and yet despite that, she felt good. Maybe she’s doing all of this wrong, but at least she’s doing what she wants wrong.

            As she walked back to their desks Marilyn turns around to face her and smiles. “That was quick!” she says casually. “Y-yeah” Rory hands her-her drink. Marilyn brings the cup to her nose and takes a deep breath in of it. Rory’s stomach twists. This was a step in the right direction.

 

***

[Marilyn] 

            Marilyn ended up finishing her cup in only a few minutes. She was exhausted from fighting with her roommate earlier and hasn’t managed to get that much homework done. And here was Rory, a classmate she’s developed a strange competition with and has barely talked to, sitting next to her in the library every day and now buying her coffee. It was weird to her. Not bad necessarily, but definitely odd.

            She’s sat next to her for seven days now. Everyday Rory will hesitantly take a seat at the desk next to Marilyn’s and they’ll sit in silence. It was one of the few times Marilyn was at a loss for words. How is she supposed to talk to someone who’s randomly decided to sit next to her every day without saying a word?

The whole week had been weird between them, but today had been especially bad. Marilyn tried her best to focus, the dark-haired girl next her had been noticeably tense that day. From rapidly tapping her pencil, to hovering over her notebook with intense concentration, to her harshly ripping out a sheet of paper to crumble it into a ball and toss it to the side (that had actually startled her a little). Rory then looked, noticing her gaze. Marilyn turned as quickly as possible and started pretending to write something. Okay, that was a little nerve-wracking. She was definitely acting stranger than usual. However, Marilyn felt like she had figured out why Rory was doing all of this when she left to get the coffee on the seventh day.

The way her face looked both strained and happy, the fidgetiness of her arm when she handed her the coffee, and how her voice sounded both quieter and louder than usual made it obvious to Marilyn that Rory was nervous. It was a lot different to the indifferent look she had in class. _Class._

            Now that she thought about it, Rory never really talked to anyone in class. Marilyn had always thought of her of someone who just didn’t like talking to others, but maybe it’s more of that she didn’t know how to talk to them. Maybe buying coffee, was her way of trying to befriend her.

            Suddenly the presence of the girl beside her felt warmer. Marilyn covered her mouth to muffle her short laugh. _She literally could’ve just asked me about class or something instead of sitting next to me for no reason._

            Marilyn leaned back in her chair and stretched out her arms. Rory looked over to her, now with the blank look that Marilyn was used to seeing her wear. “Thanks for the coffee. Next time I’ll bring my own money and we can even buy cookies.” Rory’s eyebrows raise slightly, and her dimples become visible despite her smile being very slight. “Alright.”

            It was a nice feeling.  Marilyn wasn’t used to people reaching out to be her friend. She normally just found herself ending up in them. She was chatty and loud and almost subconsciously reached out to others. It’s rare it’s the other way around.

***

            Three days later Rory has yet to get coffee again, but Marilyn makes sure to bring money every day to the library just in case. She had begun to try and make comments to the small, dark-haired girl. She would make jokes about Greg to which Rory would slightly tilt her head in confusion that made something in Marilyn’s chest flutter. She would then have to clarify it was Professor Genz.

“Doesn’t Greg kind of look like a turtle?”

“Who?”

“Oh, Professor Genz”

Her eyes opened in realization and she chuckled.

“I can see that”

            She would tell her about random things that happened to her on her way to the library, or how she had a difficult time going sleep the other night because her roommate was facetiming someone until three in the morning. Nothing she said was particularly interesting, and yet Rory listened to her intently, commenting every now and then after Marilyn thought she had long tuned her out. Here was someone who listened to her nonsensical talking happily and had wanted to be her friend this whole time.

The feelings quickly became mutual. The dark-haired girl was quiet, but she would chime in with some of her own small stories once in a while. It would be something as small as people mistaking her brother for her twin, or a silly argument she got in with a girl from her church once, or the time she fell in a creek. There was something that Marilyn found incredibly interesting about her. Throughout those three days, she had begun to want to be friends with Rory possibly even more so than the other.

That’s why when on the fourth day Rory had asked if she wanted coffee again, she almost frantically pulled out her wallet from her bag and pulled out a five-dollar bill to give her.

***

[Rory]

            Getting coffee for the two of them had now become an everyday thing for them outside of Saturday and Sunday.

            To Rory’s relief, Marilyn started acting like the chatty girl she had grown to admire after she asked to get her coffee. She would be lying if she didn’t feel a tenseness while talking the bronze haired and bright skinned girl, however. Marilyn did most of the talking in the small conversations they would have between work in the library. Rory enjoyed listening to her ramble on about nothing that was ever significant. It was oddly grounding; calming. She just hoped the other girl didn’t find it weird that she never said much or wanted more of a reaction than Rory was able to give her. She put those worries at the back of her mind for the most part. For now, she had made progress, and that’s all that matters.

            Eventually the two had gotten so used to the routine they had built that it would only take Rory turning to get out of her seat for Marilyn to reach in her backpack to get out money to give Rory for her coffee.

            While Rory liked getting coffee for them as a means of seeing the content on Marilyn’s face as well as liking the feeling of improving her relationship with the girl, Rory also went to get coffee because she liked the walk.

 The outside that was now filled with different hues of oranges, reds, and browns. The sound of leaves shuffling and falling from the trees by the winds that had begun to blow around their campus only a few weeks ago. Rory loved the way the swift breeze grabs at her clothing compared to the previous heat that made the clothes on her skin feel a dozen times heavier. The walks helped her fully embrace the change of weather despite them only being a few minutes long.

She would come back from her walk and Marilyn would turn around at the sound of her footsteps. For a quiet person, she could be awfully noisy. Little did she know that the bronze-haired girl was often awestruck on her walk back. The way her hair was blown about looking even more puffy than usual, her nose and cheeks that had a pink tint from the brief encounter with the cold, and most of all the small, slight smile. When she had first started getting their coffees that smile was strained and awkward, but Marilyn could see over time it’s become confident, and happy, and bigger than it used to be. She was cute. So very cute in her eyes.

As time passes, however, Marilyn begins to feel guilty about Rory always getting up to get her coffee. She had offered to go get the coffee for the two of them a few times. Rory would always wave the offer away, saying she enjoyed the walk, and the way the grey-eyed girl always had a small smile on her face and a look of refreshment, Marilyn believed her. That didn’t stop her from feeling somewhat guilty though.

            A few weeks later and Marilyn can’t help but think Rory’s entire aura has changed. She no longer has a tense posture and her eyebrows are furrowed a lot less often then she remembers. If she were to put it in a word, she would say Rory looked comfortable.

            That’s part of why Marilyn was feeling slightly anxious about what she had planned on asking the girl. It wasn’t a feeling Marilyn was entirely used to, being nervous to say something to someone.

            They had created another pattern amongst themselves. Monday through Friday Rory would sit next to Marilyn in the library. Around 7 pm she would go and get coffee for the two of them. It was around that time the two of them would be less focused on their work and end up in a silly conversation as they sipped away at their coffee. Around 8 pm they would get back to work, but they were still a lot less focused than they were before the coffee, and around 11 pm they would both leave to their separate dorms. It was a nice pattern. Comfortable. And Marilyn was about to change that comfortable pattern she and Rory had molded for themselves.

            However, Marilyn felt that once again, their pattern needed to be broken. She wanted to be more than just someone she talked to at the library in between studying. She wanted to properly become friends with Rory, the first person to reach out to her. She had finally decided.

            The next time Marilyn gave Rory money for coffee she repeated her usual “You know I could get the coffee for a change” and as usual Rory replied “It’s fine. I enjoy the walk.” She then left. And Marilyn waited for her return. She planned to ask her something once she got back.

            As she waited, she started flipping through the pages of her notebook just to give her hands something to do. Something to keep her from overthinking things. _Why am I feeling nervous?_ She couldn’t understand.

            Rory returned and when she handed Marilyn her coffee their pinkies briefly touched. She wondered why her mind paid attention to that small detail. The grey-eyed girl sat down in her seat, and they both sat facing their desks.

“We should start getting dinner or something.” Marilyn rushed out before she could hate the words in her head.

            Rory’s head turned to her so quickly Marilyn swore it could’ve snapped right off. Her eyes looked bigger than usual as she blinked a few times. Marilyn felt her heart jumping around in her chest.

“I mean, it’s probably not healthy the way neither of us has anything but a coffee for dinner on top of being up so late studying.”

Rory wasn’t saying anything. Marilyn continued.

“Not to mention this way we’ll both be walking back and forth from the library. Although I doubt I would want to study much more after having a proper dinner. We’re also both freshman! So getting a meal plan was mandatory. We both paid for that so it would be silly to let it go to waste. I doubt the food is that bad considering that this is a college cafeteria rather than a high school one. Of course if you don’t want to that’s totally fine. Maybe you get dinner after we leave here and I just never knew. I know I don’t haha. And aa-

Marilyn stopped, realizing how much she had rambled. Rory was just looking at her. She looked amused. Marilyn carried on.

“So anyway, do you wanna go get dinner from the dining hall instead of coffee tomorrow?”

“Yeah, okay.” Rory answered immediately.

It was Marilyn’s turn to blink in confusion. “O-okay.” She put her hands in the pockets of her hoodie after realizing she wouldn’t stop playing with her hair. _Why am I feeling embarrassed? Eating dinner with friends is a normal part of college life._

And so the next came and they were walking together, rather than Rory walking on her own, and another pattern had been broken.

Marilyn could understand what Rory meant when she said she enjoyed the walk. As soon as they left the library the fresh air and scent of decaying leaves swept around her. Marilyn looked over to Rory.

“Serious question, do you like macaroni with powdered cheese or Velveeta?”

The dark-haired girl’s eyebrows scrunched together, and her lips curved into a small smile that looked like she was trying to force away. Just as she opened her mouth to answer a strong wind blew at the two.

            Marilyn held onto her hair as she now squinted at Rory, who had her eyes tightly shut and her shoulders might as well have been touching her ears. The wind had blown her bangs up in the air to expose her forehead. _Cute._

            They made it into the dining hall. To the surprise of both of them, there was a decent amount of variety. There was a salad bar, a sandwich bar, a pizza and vegetarian section, there was even a burger and rice station, and of course a dessert section.

            The two took their separate ways in search of food. Rory gravitated towards the vegetarian section of the dining hall while Marilyn had settled for a burger. When they found a table to sit at Marilyn had noticed Rory had gotten a lot of caramel flavored desserts.

“Say, you really like caramel, don’t you? You told me you always get your coffee with caramel syrup too, right?”

Rory looked up from her food to Marilyn, blinking in thought. Marilyn swore she felt like those grey colored eyes had some sort of telepathic powers.

“Yeah. I do.”

“Oh”

“Especially those caramel candies.”

“ _Dude._ ” - Rory’s response had brought out a surprisingly enthusiastic reaction out of Marilyn.

“I _love_ those caramel candies. I actually have a funny story that has to do with them too. There was this time my dad put some of those candies under my pillow as I was sleeping back when I was like five and I ended up waking up around three in the morning to go pee that night and when I got back from the bathroom I shoved all the caramel candies in my mouth before falling back asleep and it turned out that I hadn’t actually finished swallowing the candy before I fell back asleep so when I woke up I had wet, chewed up caramel all over my face and hair. Man, that was a pain.”

Rory had definitely snorted at some point during the story. Marilyn took it as an accomplishment.

Rory was surprised she didn’t take any embarrassment from telling her that story. If anything, she could’ve sworn that the bronze-haired girl looked impressed with herself. She liked that aspect of her; how unwavering she was.

            The rest of dinner went about the same. They ate between smiles and occasional laughs. Marilyn had done most of the talking. As she rambled throughout the night, she hoped Rory didn’t mind how much she talked, but seeing that she was smiling more than Marilyn could remember her doing so previously told her that probably wasn’t the case.

            Rory, who had managed to get a better score than her on every other test, who never talked to anyone in that class, who asked Marilyn if she could sit next to her in the library out of what seemed like nowhere to Marilyn, who continued to be silent after asking to sit next to her until offering to buy her coffee, who had big dimples despite her often small smile, whose facial expression was most often blank, and who happily indulged in meaningless conversations about food with Marilyn.

She was a weird one, Marilyn thought. It’s what she liked so much about her. Despite the girl’s quietness, Marilyn had grown to rather enjoy her company.

 

***

[Rory]

They both leave dinner smiling, excited about the possibility of making what seemed like a good friend. Rory feels good.

So good that she calls Cara and opens up about how hard it’s been for her to make new friends for the first time since she moved into her dorm. She expresses how hard it’s been to talk to her roommate, along with opening up to classmates, and what felt like an almost failed attempt of befriending Marilyn, the girl who sat across from her in her history, and the girl who Rory saw as her complete opposite. Saying all of it out loud made her feel both silly and relieved at the same time.

“I’m sorry I teased you about your roommate, that was shitty of me”

Rory tried to blow off her apology, saying it wasn’t necessary, but Cara didn’t listen to her. “No, it really was. You’ve been thrown into a whole new environment. I have no idea how weird that must be”

“You were ready to do it though.” At that they both looked at each other through their phone screens and smiled. “Yeah man, that dumb ass country college robbed us”

            Rory thinks back to the phone calls her and Cara had that summer, both gushing at how much fun they were going to have as roommates in college. She thinks back to how the week before her first semester of college started Cara called her in tears about how the college had canceled her financial aid and that she wouldn’t be able to stay enrolled in the college due to the costs. They both always made light-hearted jokes about it, but they both knew it had hurt both of them.

“Yeah, they really did.” Rory smiled back. A few moments passed before Cara started talking again.

“Back to this Marilyn girl”

“Why didn’t you just go up to her in class and ask her about lecture materials or even just ask if you could go to the library together FROM there”

“I couldn’t do that”

“And why not?”

“It would’ve been embarrassing”

“AND SITTING NEXT TO HER IN SILENCE FOR A WHOLE WEEK ISN’T”

Heat rises to Rory’s face. “s-shut up”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -in the next chapter or two there will be a hurricane, don’t worry no one gets hurt.  
> -you see, I live in North Carolina, which has had the pleasure of having two hurricanes hit it this year. Somehow it inspired a few ideas for my fic and hey, would you look at that this story also takes place in North Carolina.  
> -we’ll also be with Marilyn when she goes home for the weekend in one of the upcoming chapters, so that chapter will probably have no Rory (╥_╥)  
> -as much as I want to get this story done, I’m probably gonna start a new one soon. This story is really sober and I need something to get my goofs out.  
> -I’ll still work on this one too though!  
> \- I'm @belljarbeetles on both twitter and tumblr if you want to yell at me


	5. The News has Reached Me, but Where are You?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> coffee and hurricanes :-)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Rory’s perspective!!  
> -This chapter will probably be shorter than the last two  
> -I’d say this is the first chapter Rory and Marilyn’s relationship isn’t the main focus  
> -This chapter features: a hurricane warning, giddy college students, confused Rory, Rory’s unnamed roommate, and finally- a phone call with Rory’s mom!...maybe?  
> \- From this point onward I plan on the family’s of Rory and Marilyn to take on a bigger role in the story  
> -enjoy!!!  
> -you may also notice that Marilyn and Rory drink just a little too much coffee  
> \- there will be a few footnotes in this in relation to North Carolina geography. Not much though!

Today Rory’s classes were a tad bit more lively than usual, for a reason beyond her knowledge at the time being. Before Professor Genz had walked in to start lecture the class was filled with smiling kids murmuring to those next to them in a rush. Rory managed to overhear “days off”, “already packed”, and “no school” from the several conversations flooding the classroom. She looked over to Marilyn. She was halfway turned around in her seat as she eagerly talked to the boy behind her. She wore the same sort of excited smile the rest of the kids were.

 

Rory had no clue what was going on.

 

Professor Genz walks into the classroom with a red colored mug. He’s wearing the same excited smile as everyone else. As soon as the clock hits 10:00 and Genz begins to talk, hands are already in the air along the murmuring that normally dies down once class starts. Rory could do nothing but look around at her classmates and to her professor. It takes one word for Rory to catch onto to understand why everyone was acting strange.

 

_Hurricane._

The realization that she hadn’t checked her email or paid any attention to the news in a while hits her. Oh.

Noticing the movement of the class, Professor Genz starts talking about the hurricane. How we don’t actually know if it’s going to hit us yet, how there’s already flooding in Myrtle Beach and that at the least we’ll be getting some awful storms our way, and to what most of the class was waiting for him to give information on: the school has yet to announce any sort of protocols and has yet to make any decision on canceling classes. Apparently, they’d email us in the next two days to let us know if school would be getting canceled.

It’s needless to say that no one in class was paying much attention to the lecture at hand. Rory assumes Professor Genz caught on to as much since he ended class thirty minutes early.

As Rory was packing her things Marilyn had walked over to her desk. She’s started doing that every now and then. Rory still wasn’t used to it. Her talking to her outside of the library that is.

“Dude, can you believe they’re not gonna make any announcements until three days from now? The hurricane has literally already hit the coast and they’re keeping us posted like this. Did they forget we’re less than two hours away from the beach?”

“Yeah.” Rory said, trying to hide the fact that she didn’t learn about the hurricane until thirty minutes ago.

“My mom’s coming to get me regardless so if I end up missing class, well at least I won’t be dead. What about you?”

“Hm?”

“Are your parents getting you?”

 Are her parents getting her? Well, Rory isn’t quite sure considering that they haven’t called her at all since…

 “Wait when did we first know about the hurricane possibly hitting here?” She asks, not meaning to dodge Marilyn’s question.

 She could tell by the look on Marilyn’s face that she had caught on to her own cluelessness of the hurricane that was supposedly going to hit their area in the next week.

 “Rory…it was a week ago.”

Oh.

 Rory realized she had stopped packing her things once Marilyn started talking to her. Only about three kids outside from them were in the class. Professor Genz was giving them a weird, amused look.

She hurriedly put her last notebook in her backpack and zipped it up. For whatever reason, she felt embarrassed.

When Rory started walking Marilyn followed. She tried to stop herself from smiling too obviously but knowing she had waited on her made it hard.

“You have a class right after this one, right?” Marilyn asked with her head turned to Rory

“Yeah, all my classes are directly after each other.”

Marilyn commented how that was smart of her and then continued on to complain about her own schedule. Rory wasn’t sure how long she planned on walking with her. Would she end up walking her to class? It’s not that Rory would object, she isn’t even really sure how she would approach that.

 

_Hey, uh when are you gonna stop talking to me so I can go to class._

Knowing her, that’s probably the exact way it would come out of her mouth too.

“Hey um,” Marilyn started

Rory turned her head to look Marilyn in the face rather than ahead. She was pointing in the direction ahead of them and wearing an awkward smile. The sun’s rays were conveniently shining on her, emphasizing the golden highlights in her bronze hair and the green specks in her brown eyes. She looks especially bright in this moment, Rory felt.

“I’m kinda feeling some coffee right now, so I’m gonna part here with you.”

“Oh okay” Rory said smartly.

“Okay, bye!” she said as she waved her hand furiously and smiled. Rory tried to match with her small smile and put her hand up, fingers out, but put no waving motion.

She couldn’t help but feel like it was an awkward farewell. The awkwardness she felt most on her part. Despite that she feels content from their brief walk together. She was now one of those kids who walked from class to class with a friend.

Rory made it to her next class and was confused when she was the first one to come in. She stood at the doorway for a second before she remembered.

_Oh yeah._

_Class ended thirty minutes early._

           

*

The class ended up going the same as Professor Genz’s. Everyone was hyper-aware of the impending hurricane coming their way and as a result no one managed to get anything done.

Even when she got to the library later that day, her and Marilyn had barely managed to get anything done for classes. After an hour in an attempt of finishing a writing assignment, Rory ended up playing the sims in between conversing with Marilyn who seemed to be going back and forth from going through twitter and watching The Office.

After their mostly quiet walk to the dining hall, when they entered Marilyn looked over to Rory and said, “So we got nothing done today” and they both chuckled. While they still had quiet moments between them, it no longer felt as awkward. Not often at least. Rory was grateful for it.

As soon as they left the dining hall the two were hit by a strong, chilling wind. Rory’s eyes forced themselves closed and her hair flew in every direction around her. Once the wind came to a stop Rory was able to open her eyes again. She saw golden eyes watching her.

“What.” Rory said, failing to phrase it as a question.

“Wh- N-nothing! It’s really November now, huh?” She said with a chuckle as she picked up her pace. Rory looked at the trees in front of them that were now bare of leaves.

“Yeah I guess so”

Rory’s eyes then fell to Marilyn, who was slightly ahead of her. Her hair shined from the light of the moon. Her bronze colored hair seemed to be able to radiate off anything. Rory did a small skip to catch up with her. Rory thought she saw her smile.

*

 When Rory returns to her dorm for the first time since the morning, she opens the door to her roommate arguing with someone over the phone with several things put away in plastic bags along with a suitcase filled with unfolded clothing. Guess she caught the memo that there was a hurricane coming their way.

Rory stood awkwardly at the doorway, the bags and suitcase were taking up the entryway and she’d rather not cross paths with her very upset looking dormmate. She looked over to Rory and threw her hand in her direction.”

“ _Rory aren’t **your** parents coming to pick you up?_” She asks in a very agitated and risen voice

 “Uh, I’m not sure actually” she said honestly, not entirely sure why her roommate wanted her input during her phone call. Her roommate’s eyebrows furrowed as her mouth hung open for a few seconds, causing Rory to freeze up as the heat raised to her face. She continued arguing.

 “See mom, Rory’s going home too. Everyone’s going home. Mom, _I could die_.” She argued to the other side of the phone.

Rory wasn’t sure where to go or what to do. Was she still involved in their conversation? Should she leave to let her roommate to argue in peace? She wasn’t sure so, in turn, she stood there staring blankly.

It wasn’t until her roommate turned to look at her again that Rory felt the need to move her body. She shifted to her coffee maker and threw in the filter and grounded coffee she had. She immediately regrets her choice once the machine starts making all sorts of noises, causing her roommate to only raise her voice further, becoming thicker and more wobblily by the second.

By the time the coffee had stop pouring it seemed like her roommate’s call was coming to an end. Just a few seconds after the coffee machine stopped making the rumbling noises Rory thought she heard her roommate’s voice crack over the phone.

When she throws her phone on her bed before plopping face first on to it and hears a few soft sniffles, she figures she was right.

She stood next to her dresser that her coffee pot sat on, feeling like she should do something. Why did she even make this coffee? Did she jump to make coffee in a panic? Is this some strange coping mechanism she never realized she had until now?

Her roommate’s sniffling had quieted down a bit. Maybe she had calmed down a bit. Rory kicked the air in discomfort.

“You…want any coffee?” She said so quietly she could barely even hear herself. Despite that, her roommate’s head shot up from the blanket it was previously buried in. Her eyes were red and glossy. Her eyes moved from Rory to the coffee pot, then nodded her head slowly and hopped off her bed.

She grabbed her mug off her desk, which Rory hadn’t actually thought to check if she had. Rory moved away from the coffee pot so her roommate could have room to pour some. After pouring coffee in her mug she mumbled a soft thanks to Rory. She nodded in return. Rory then poured herself her own coffee and took a seat at her desk. She was sitting backwards to face her roommate’s bed.

“Are your parents not coming?”

 “They said I need to take an Uber.” She said, voice still thick with tears

“Oh that’s probably a lot since you’re from Fayetville[1]”

 “Yea my mom said they’d pay but still.”

Oh.

 Well that changes things. Rory guesses that she must’ve had a strange look on her face because her roommate proceeded to explain herself in defense

 “Don’t look at me like that! I know it’s stupid that I’m crying!”

 Rory’s body went cold and her chest suddenly felt a thousand times heavier. Her face felt both hot and numb. She didn’t mean to-

“I never said tha-

 “I don’t want to be a dingy car with a stranger for forty minutes, okay?!” She says before putting her coffee down and rolling into a ball in her bed. The sniffling continued.

 Rory sat there. Her body feeling warm, cold, and numb all at the same time. Her face felt drained and her head was pounding. She messed up and she didn’t know what to do about it. Every part of her was telling her to leave. She was considering it too, but the thought of coming back scared her a lot more than staying. So she stayed. She turned around, pulled out her laptop, and pretended as if the conversation had never even happened.

 

_Just a few steps backwards. It’s no big deal. Just a few steps backwards._

 

The next morning Rory’s roommate was leaving the dorms with all her things. They still had a day until the school even announced canceling upcoming classes, but Rory figured she wouldn’t comment on that.

She had opened the door to the hallway, then turned around to face Rory. She wore a similar expression to that of a kid that had accidentally broken something. She just kind of stood there for a few seconds. Then she took a deep breath. And then she began talking.

 “I’m sorry I got upset with you yesterday. I feel really stupid about it now.” She scratched her head as she looked at Rory while avoiding making eye contact with her. “I’m actually a little embarrassed you had to see me throw a tantrum like that” She chuckled.

After that she stared at Rory in wait of a response.

“It’s okay.” Rory said, not actually knowing whether it was okay or not. To some extent, she didn’t really care, because she felt bad about yesterday as well.

 “I don’t…I don’t think it’s stupid that you were crying. Honest. I was surprised by your response is all. Crying is a natural human function so me thinking it’s stupid would b-

 She stops when she hears her roommate snort.

 “ _A natural human function_?” She teased with a small smile. Rory’s eyebrows furrowed.

 “…yeah?” The smile on her roommate’s face grew.

 “Wh- It _is_.”

 “I know. It’s just a funny way to think about it.”

 “…how?”

 Her roommate shrugged her shoulders before picking up her bags. “Just is” she says as she exits the entryway of their dorm. She proceeded to walk out into the hall and the dorm’s door closed on its own, leaving Rory alone.

*

By the next day Rory was taking her roommate's lead and ready to call her parents. She pressed in her mom’s number and stared at the email announcing that classes would be postponed for the rest week as she listened to the light ringing on her right ear. The phone stopped ringing and familiar sweet, high pitched voice came through.

“Hello?”

 “Hey mom.” She cringed at her own voice that sounded coarse and heavy to her ears. Her mom didn’t seem to notice considering she replied quickly and in the same chipper tone as her last reply.

“Hey! What’s going on you never call me!”

“You never answer the phone.” Rory replied, completely lacking in the enthusiasm and sweet tone her mother’s words wore. Suddenly her shoulders were beginning to feel heavy.

“Oh, that’s not true!”

“This is the first time we’ve talked since I moved into the dorms.”

There was a moment of silence, and Rory knew she had broken the upbeat tone her mother had been keeping until now.

 “So why are you calling?”

Rory shifted her position in her chair and tapped her pencil rapidly. Her mind went through a thousand different thoughts in this moment. _Because we haven’t talked in about three months? Has nothing happened since I left that you want to tell me about?_ There were so many things she wanted to say and yet all the words she wanted to get out were stuck in her throat. Sitting and intensifying.

 “What’s that noise?” her mom added.

 “Oh, I’m tapping my pencil.” She said only realizing she was doing so now. She didn’t stop, however.

 “I’m calling about the hurricane.”

“Oh that! Isn’t the possibility of it hitting down there still up in the air?”

“Well yeah, but classes have already been canceled and there’s still a possibility of it hitting here.” Even she could hear the defensiveness in her voice as she rushed her reasoning out.

“I don’t know…” her mom said, sounding like she knew very well that she wasn’t going to get her.

 “For Christ’s sake Rory, the worst you guys will get down there is some bad thunderstorms.”

 Rory completely froze, the sound of her pencil tapping the desk no longer existent. She had to remind herself to breathe for a moment.

 “I’m on speaker?”

 “Yeah! Can you hear your dad? He just walked in a moment ago. Guess he’s loud enough you can tell” she hears her mom laugh through the other end of the phone.

 There was ruffling sound from the other end seconds later as a “let me see the phone” was audible somewhere in there. Then, in a familiar but not very welcoming voice, her father spoke.

 

“Rory.”

 

“What.”

 

“We’re not driving out there to pick you up.”

 

All the words that she wanted to get out stuck to the back of her throat as he had taped them there himself. She always had such a hard time talking with him, especially arguing. However, while her words were frozen, something in her chest was beginning to boil.

“B-but we’re not going to have classes for the rest of the week a-and campus operations will be at a minimum a-an-

She stopped, hating the whine she heard in her own voice. Her eyes turned glossy with tears and she felt _so stupid_. She had to stop or else he would notice she was about to cry.

“You’re the one who decided to go there, Rory.”

“You’re not coming home over what will probably only be a thunderstorm. Are we on the same page?”

Rory’s end of the call was silent. She didn’t want to agree but was too nervous what no would lead to.

 

“ _Rory, do you agree with me_?”

 

“…Yeah okay."

 

 

 

[1] Fayettville is a two hour from drive from the rural area that Rory’s college is in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -I hope this chapter came out all right, I’ve never really wrote angst before so uhh was there enough tension for you guys?  
> -The reason Rory reacts to her family the way she does will probably be elaborated in later chapters  
> -I’m not entirely happy with how this chapter came out but I’ll be frank and say I’m pretty eager to be done with this one  
> \- Rory’s ultimate friendship move: offer them coffee (hey, it would work on me)  
> -To the astrology geeks: Rory is a Capricorn and a obvious one.  
> -Not a lot of Marilyn in this one, huh. I kind of like how she casually fit in though!  
> -Next chapter we’ll be home for the hurricane with Marilyn! I wonder what her family is like…  
> \- I have this idea for a oneshot I wanna write so I might end up taking awhile on chapter 6 >< sorry!


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